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A problem is that for many projects, the maintainers don't bear any cost when someone new tries to join a project, invests a bunch of time+effort and ends up no
by afarrell 12y ago
A problem is that for many projects, the maintainers don't bear any cost when someone new tries to join a project, invests a bunch of time+effort and ends up nowhere. Therefore, even if they really don't have time, energy, or inclination to spend time mentoring, they can just say "welcome to the team" and toss the new member into an ocean of code to sink or swim. Some will in fact swim.
Conversely, if they do spend a bunch of time on detailed mentorship, the new contributor doesn't have to stay
Another problem is that
- joe_the_user 12y agoAbsolutely, My point is not that every programmer should be welcomed with open arms by every project. There are go reasons for the projects themselves to be selective. But that is not a reason for a would-be contributor to be unselective themselves. It's a reason for a contributor to also be selective and not just choose any project that suits their fancy. This is my point.
- afarrell 12y agoI strongly agree with you. I think that selectivity should be explicit and that there are currently incentives for maintainers to merely implicitly and quietly be selective